Description

‘Like the best memoirs, this one is written with novelistic and poetic flair. Red Dust Road is a fantastic, probing and heart-warming read’ – Independent

‘One of Scotland’s most celebrated living writers’ – Spectator

From one of our best-loved poets and former Makar of Scotland, Red Dust Road is a heart-stopping story of parents and siblings, friends and strangers, belonging and beliefs, biology and destiny.

From the moment when, as a little girl, she realizes that her skin is a different colour from that of her beloved mum and dad, to the tracing and finding of her birth parents, her Highland mother and Nigerian father, Jackie Kay’s journey in Red Dust Road is one of unexpected twists, turns and deep emotions.

In a book remarkable for its warmth and candour, Kay discovers that inheritance is about much more than genes: that we are shaped by songs as much as by cells, and that what triumphs, ultimately, is love.

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Publisher Review

A clear-eyed, witty and unsentimental account of the push and pull between nature and nurture. Happiness shines through * Sunday Times * Wonderful, humane . . . This is a book with resolution, determination and honesty * Scotland on Sunday * It is Kay's abundant wit that makes Red Dust Road such a moving, spirited work. This is a terrifically easy, evocative, and often amusing read . . . A remarkable, soul-searching journey * Sunday Herald * Like the best memoirs, this one is written with novelistic and poetic flair. Red Dust Road is a fantastic, probing and heart-warming read * Independent * Kay's strength as a poet has always been her clear, plain style, and its fearless spoken poignancy -- Daily Telegraph One of Scotland's most celebrated living writers * Spectator *